Your North West Wedding- Page number 38 - August/September 2021 (Issue 69)

My little sister died nine years ago at the age of 22. She would have been a bridesmaid, and it was a highly emotional day for our family as the last time I walked down the aisle in a church was at her funeral. We fully believe she was there with us on the day – bringing the sunshine, and for that, we’re eternally grateful. Although we couldn’t have a proper reception, ever yone helped make it the most perfect day ever! We really wouldn’t have ha d it any other way. Chris and I decided to decorate the church ourselves with bunting and made an incredible photo board of all our guests. Since we weren’t allowed to sing due to COVID-19, we secretly hid musical instruments under everyone’s seats, and we played these during the hymns, which was fantastic. FINALLY, we do After having to postpone their wedding eight times, Ceara and Chris tied the knot in a beautiful ceremony at St Catherine’s Church Images courtesy of Adam Tranter Wedding Photography I n typical modern fay fashion, Chris and I met online,” says Ceara. “Our first date was a huge success, and over the next few months, we would meet up to go walking or exploring the Lakes. For the first two years, we commuted between Ulverston and St Bees each weekend, exploring different areas and building our relationship. In 2017, we decided to take the plunge and buy our first home in Eskdale.” Chris proposed on Father’s Day in 2019. “As we were unable to see our respective fathers that day, Chris suggested we go for a walk up Harter Fell at the bottom of Eskdale Valley,” shares the bride. “When we got to the top, Chris told me to shut my eyes as he had a surprise. I genuinely thought he was going to give me a small Lindt chocolate bunny as we had several leftover from Easter, but when I opened my eyes, there was a ring! He asked me to marry him, and we had the most perfect day.” Here she shares some of her favourite moments from their big day... “ We had our ceremony at St Catherine’s Church an d afternoon tea and canapés from Woodland’s Bistro & Tea Room that we ate whil e walking around the fells. We were engaged in June 2019 and planned the most amazing wedding for 30 th May 2020. We were going to have a huge celebr ation with friends and family, then COVID-19 came along. We init ially thought, as most people probably did at the time, that things might be better by May, but in April we decided to postpone until September. We then postponed again and again, and then to save heartache, we concluded th at we would try and get married with a small guest list, so we completely re-planned and re-worked the wedding. Our smaller day was then cancelled due to restrictions and then cancelled again, so in April, we decided to bi te the bullet and plan our big day for the eighth time. After endless hours of rearranging, we had the most perfect day ever. 38